Paneldiscussion

How can the electronic music community become more equal?

Saturday 1st of October, Göteborg / Bananpiren

Time: 7pm (to be confirmed)

With our first edition of the WHY NOT festival we want to transform Göteborg’s harbor into a two-day electronic music festival and at the same time raise awareness for the question how Sweden's music scene can become more equal. The gender distribution in the field of underground music still differs remarkably from the ambition of even distribution. Besides booking at least 50% women we want to work on this topic also in form of a panel discussion. The event will be supported by Musikverket, Göteborg & Co as well as Goethe-Institut Sweden. The moderator for the discussion will be Mats Almegård, a music and culture journalist who has been writing about electronic and experimental music for more than a decade in Swedish and international media. Mats is the producer and reporter of the show Elektroniskt i P2 med Andreas Tilliander – the show about electronic music on Swedish National Radio.

Guests:

Anna Gavanas and Anna Öström are the authors of the highly publicized book “DJ life: the history of Stockholm’s DJ culture”, released this year on Gidlunds Press. They have been established figures, as both DJs, club arrangers and writers, on the Stockholm scene since the 1990s, and together they founded the network Sister Sthlm (2003-2009).

Gloria Viagra is Berlin’s tallest fiction character, created 15 ago years and probably most famous LGBTQ person. Gloria often is booked as DJ, moderator, committed to the topic of Aids prevention and demonstrates for the victims of the financial crisis. Her Internet Talkshow „Thekenschlampe - The Champagne of Talk“ Gloria gained popularity very quickly.

Exclusive DJ Workshop

by Tanya Sojka (Miss Tee) ,Project Manager Yoko DJs

With our first edition WHY NOT festival wants to raise awareness for the question how Sweden's music scene can become more equal. Besides booking 50% women we want to work on this topic in form of panel discussions and talks as well as DJ-workshops hold by Yoko DJs.

Yoko DJs is an organization striving for improvement regarding a gender equal music scene with a main focus on DJ-art, active both in Gothenburg and Stockholm.

Yoko DJ’s missionis to face the underrepresentation of women in the DJ-world and to support youth and young adults’ music interests. By collaborating with club promoters and festivals Yoko DJ’s are hosting workshops and provide a central meeting place for their members to make contacts and exchange ideas as well as offering great training opportunities and most importantly, support. In addition, Yoko DJs are also participating in panel discussions on the topic of gender equality in the electronic music community.

Yoko DJ’s next aim is to try to expand to other cities in Sweden, too.

in addition

Bringmann & Kopetzki

Home: Berlin and Kassel, Germany

After begging this talented duo for quite a while to create WHY NOT festival’s website artwork for us, we are very happy we could get them on board! These guys are THE cult artists when it comes to techno comics. Many seasoned “ravers” went to record stores twenty years ago just to get a copy of the latest Groove magazine...because it featured one comic page of them. NOBODY had such an graphical impact on techno in Germany as these guys. A warm applause and a big thank you, Jens and Valentin! Here some facts: Jens Bringmann and Valentin Kopetzki got to know each other in a desolated night at a club. Not giving up on trying to have some fun they started to get deadly drunk and to draw some mutants on napkins and thus, their friendship began. After working for some advertisement agencys, they finally decided to take over world supremacy and founded 1994 their first Techno-Club called “Aufschwung Ost” in Kassel. Gaining popularity very quickly by running this club and drawing the cartoon-technolfyers themselves they lately published their cartoon series Hotze in Groove and Wild Life in Faze-Magazine. DO check out their site to learn about German techno culture:

Gram[m]ofon

One Talk + One Podcast + One Performance

In cooperation with Goethe-Institut Schweden and Polska Institutet Stockholm Get to know an artist quite well by joining an intimate one hour interview recording seesion. One talk, one podcast and one artist performance - because a record player, or a Gram[m]ofon, is more than just a device that plays back music.

Combined with a record collection you have a machine that plays back a person’s history. A record collection is a very personal thing, and when the headphones are not connected it might just gossip loudly about one’s childhood, infatuations, disappointments, joys, sorrows and passions. If a record collection could be said to be the soundtrack of your life, the record player might just tell us who you are. Who the performing artist will be? Well, it’s a surprise.

Gram[m]ofon’s moderator and cultural journalist MATS ALMEGARD has been writing about electronic and experimental music for more than a decade in swedish and international media. Mats is the producer and reporter of the show Elektroniskt i P2 med Andreas Tilliander – the show on electronic music on Swedish National Radio. Apart from magazines, newspapers and radio, Mats has also made a film documentary about (swedish) electronic music, called Ström åt folket.

WHY NOT’s Build-Up

Henrik Hörlin & Crew

For a confusing side-program, nerdy art and surprising decoration we got Henrik Hörlin and his crew on board for you: creators of display props and prototypes, anything weird, unique and practical is possible. The sites will be built of re-used materials.

VJ and Lightshows

Ragad Youseph (a.k.a Ragge)

Ragad Youseph (a.k.a. Ragge), creator of ambiguous spaces and sensory experiences, has been working with lights for a couple of years at different nightclubs and through projects like Secret Island Nation (SIN), The Draft and Club Mythos in Göteborg, just to name a few. Ragdad thinks lights as a different kind of art that allows you to paint a picture of the suranding sounds, environment and music that you may hear. Be prepared to be surprised!

Do you want to contribute to the program?

30 Sep & 1 Oct 2016

Bananpiren @ Frihamnen harbor, Göteborg, Sweden

WHY NOT - Göteborg’s Electronic Music Festival

With our first edition of the WHY NOT festival we will transform Göteborg’s harbor into a two-day electronic music festival. WHY NOT is a new concept in the tradition of Mythos and Secret Island Nation Festival. Together with Musikverket, Goethe-Institut Schweden and many others, WHY NOT offers a well-curated international line-up not only consisting of well-established headliners, but even promising rising talents and local heroes.

Our Contribution

As Sweden’s main export industry seems to be mostly known for its pop music scene, we’ve decided it’s time to break that reputation and introduce some much needed diversity into the mix. There are so many techno talents in Sweden, and we do know the audience is there as well. But, sadly, there are only few options to party for real, especially on Sweden’s west coast. Thus, we want to claim our own underground techno and house scene, bring it out of the dark with the hopes of promoting the scene with a touch of that well-known “Berlin feeling” - but with a Swedish twist! So WHY NOT try and change that?! So here comes a sparkling new festival, dedicated to electronic underground music in Göteborg.

Save the Planet - It’s the Only One With Beer.

We believe in practicing what you preach. Apart from seeking a bit of self-indulgence, we also take moral aspects into consideration and seek to keep WHY NOT as eco-friendly as possible; reusing materials for the build-up, art and recycling, of course. You can expect an eclectic side-program, nerdy art and some quite surprising deco-efforts.

Let the Swedish festival summer end with a grand final!Indulge your senses and come dance with us!Most welcome,Your WHY NOT team